KUALA LUMPUR: The governmen t’s initiatives in ensuring quality education through the National Transformation Programme (NTP) has resulted in an increase in national literacy and numeracy rates among Year Three pupils last year.

The Bahasa Melayu literacy rate stands at 98.3 per cent, English language at 95.7 per cent, and numeracy is at 98.8 per cent. The education sector achieved 102 per cent in its key perfor-
mance indicator score in the National Key Result Areas (NKRA), and 114 per cent score in the National Key Economic Areas ( N K E A) .

As one of the seven NKRAs under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), the national nursery enrolment rate had risen from four per cent in 2010, to 6.92 per cent last year.

The national pre-school enrolment rate had increased from 72.4 per cent in 2010, to 84.26 percent last year.

In line with enhancing competitiveness through the Dual Language Programme (DLP), the NTP had improved the scores of primary and secondary school students nationwide in their year-end English exams.

There was a 36.4 per cent increase in the scores of primar y school pupils and a 46.4 per cent increase among secondary school students.

These results were seen in 1,214 schools, with a total of 129,859 pupils and students, where DLP was implemented.
Under the NTP, schools were equipped with a virtual learning environment (VLE) through the Internet. This involved integrated teaching, learning, collaboration and administrative functions, with 865,738 pupils and students utilising VLE in at least one session per week.

The NTP also boosted the employability of graduates by raising the quality of education at private skills training institutes. This success could be seen in 8,380 students who were trained through industry-based approaches to ensure that they were market-ready upon graduation.

The NTP had also made Malaysia a global leader in international education, with more than 170,068 international students coming to the country last year. There were 136,293 international students at higher learning institutions, 33,031 at schools and language centres, and 744 at technical and vocational institutions.